Scanning technology captures an image, or regions of an image, from a printed document, photograph, or other similar image media, and converts the image into an electronic form. Initially, an image is scanned to generate a preview of the image, which is also commonly referred to as a preview scan. To save file space in memory, only those sections of the image that are intended to be used can be selected from the preview scan before performing a final scan of the image and generating image data that will be saved in memory.
An image media, such as a document, can have any number of image regions that are commonly designated as text, tables, photographs in either black and white or color, and line art or graphics in either black and white or color. Typically, a scanning software application receives scanned image data and classifies the different image types into image regions for a particular document.
A preview scan is typically a low resolution scan of an image which takes less time to process, but is displayable for user processing. For example, regions of an image shown in a preview scan can be selected, or otherwise cropped, from which a final scan of the selected image regions is generated. For the second, and final scan, a flatbed scanner re-scans only the selected image regions at a higher resolution to produce a higher quality printable and viewable scanned image.
Advances in media reproduction and imaging technology have created a trend towards smaller and affordable multifunction devices in place of traditional stand-alone, single purpose devices such as photocopiers, fax machines, and flatbed scanners. Multifunction devices, as the name implies, are devices capable of multiple functions such as printing, copying, scanning, and/or faxing.
For a multifunction device with scanning capability, and having an automatic document feeder (ADF), the scan head or image recognition component of the device is fixed. The image media having an image to be scanned is passed over the stationary scanning component to initially scan the image and generate a preview scan of the image. Consequently, the image media is not then in a position to be re-scanned to generate a final scan of the selected image regions. Instead of being able to scan twice, once for a preview scan, and again to scan the selected image regions as with a flatbed scanner, an automatic document feed scanner does not have an option to allow a second scan at a higher resolution to generate a higher quality printable and viewable scanned image.